nds bore traces of
charcoal. Shots had been fired; they found one of his cartridge-cases
close to the spot where Count Claudieuse had been wounded. There it
was I saw the plot. How could all these circumstances have agreed so
precisely if they had not been pre-arranged, and calculated beforehand?
Our poor M. Daubigeon had tears in his eyes; and even that meddlesome
fellow, Mechinet, the clerk, was quite overcome. M. Galpin was the only
one who looked pleased; but then he was the magistrate, and he put the
questions. He, my master's friend!--a man who was constantly coming
here, who ate our bread, slept in our beds, and shot our game. Then it
was, 'My dear Jacques,' and 'My dear Boiscoran' always, and no end of
compliments and caresses; so that I often thought one of these days I
should find him blackening my master's boots. Ah! he took his revenge
yesterday; and you ought to have seen with what an air he said to
master, 'We are friends no longer.' The rascal! No, we are friends no
longer; and, if God was just, you ought to have all the shot in your
body that has wounded Count Claudieuse."

M. de Chandore was growing more and more impatient. As soon, therefore,
as Anthony's breath gave out a moment, he said,--

"Why did you not come and tell me all that immediately?"

The old servant ventured to shrug his shoulders slightly, and replied,--

"How could I? When the examination was over, that man, Galpin, put the
seals everywhere,--strips of linen, fastened on with sealing-wax, as
they do with dead people. He put one on every opening, and on some
of them two. He put three on the outer door. Then he told me that he
appointed me keeper of the house, that I would be paid for it, but that
I would be sent to the galleys if any one touched the seals with the
tip of the finger. When he had handed master over to the gendarmes, that
man, Galpin, went away, leaving me here alone, dumfounded, like a man
who has been knocked in the head. Nevertheless, I should have come to
you, sir, but I had an idea, and that gave me the shivers."

Grandpapa Chandore stamped his foot, and said,--

"Come to the point, to the point!"

"It was this: you must know, gentlemen, that, in the examination, that
breech-loading gun played a prominent part. That man, Galpin looked at
it carefully, and asked master when he had last fired it off. Master
said, 'About five days ago. You hear, I say, five days.' Thereupon, that
man, Galpin, puts the gun down, w